Monday, March 05, 2012

Is the Exodus Story Historical?

One of the most popular arguments against the historical
reliability of the Bible is the argument that there is apparently no historical
evidence for one of the most momentous events in the book: the Exodus. Critics of the
Bible delight to point this out, though it is not only from the irreligious
that we hear this argument. Liberal and unorthodox Christians like to argue
against the historical reliability of the Bible, pushing forth the idea that
faith is not about objective facts and historical truth, but that faith is
about our subjective feelings and mystic experiences with God. To them, a blind
leap in dark is the essence of faith, and the more unobjective and ridiculous a
belief, the more spiritual! I recently had a Mormon say to me that believing in
the Bible is the same as believing in the Book of Mormon – since both require
you to believe in the preposterous. Just as the Book of Mormon contains a
“history” with no evidence (or rather, with evidence to the contrary), so also
does the Bible, and the example he pointed to from the Bible was the Exodus
story.

However, faith is not a blind leap in the dark. It has never
been defined that way until the most recent centuries, and even then it has
only been defined that way by liberals and the unorthodox, not by the
traditional Christian body at large. To Christians, faith has nothing to do
with the absurd. It is not more spiritual to believe in something without
evidence and against reason – such an idea does not come from the Bible - it is
harmful and foolish. If you can believe something without evidence then you can
believe anything at all. That is not Christianity. Christianity is a religion
of truth, not of falsehood and unreality.

If one objects by saying that in the Bible we are required
to believe all sorts of wonderful things, like God parting the Red Sea, and the
virgin birth, and the resurrection of the dead - all alleged absurdities - we
respond by saying: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14) “For
nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37) “Why should it be thought a
strange thing that God can raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8) Faith is about
believing in God, not believing in the absurd. The greatest statement of faith
is: what is impossible with man is possible with God. We do not argue that
virgins naturally give birth, nor that seas naturally part, nor that dead bodies
naturally rise. Of course they don’t. But that is not our faith. Our faith is
that God can do anything, and we call those miracles “miracles” precisely
because they lie outside the realm of natural ability. To believe that miracles
naturally occur is to believe absurdity. To believe that miracles occur by the
power of God is to have true faith. One need only believe in the supernatural
power of God and miracles no longer are absurdities, but rather testimonies of the
presence of the Almighty.

To believe in the Exodus is not preposterous. That God could
deliver Israel from their Egyptian captors with great signs and wonders, dividing
the sea, and bringing them through it safely while crushing their enemies
behind them – this is not outside the realm of possibility. The question that
faces us in this article, however, is whether there is evidence for it; or is
the Exodus to be compared to the Book of Mormon, which has no evidence for its
alleged history, but rather has evidence to the contrary? It is the purpose of
this article to show that the Exodus cannot be compared to the Book of Mormon
based upon the argument that in both cases there is equally a lack of evidence;
but rather, unlike the Book of Mormon, there is in fact a reasonable basis to
believe that the Exodus is true history. I contend that the popular argument which
says that the Exodus is unhistorical due to a lack of evidence is superficial
and hasty. Before anyone passes judgment upon the historicity of the Exodus,
they must carefully consider the case.

There is an immense difference between the case for the Book
of Mormon and the case for the Exodus. It is important that we recognize this
major point: that when dealing with the Book of Mormon we are dealing with centuries of civilizations, but when
dealing with the Exodus we are dealing with a single event. The Book of Mormon claims that great Hebrew
civilizations existed in the Americas from around 600 BC to the 15th
century AD – civilizations complete with walled cities, road systems, large
armies, and prosperous trade. Do you not think that this would be easy to
discover? Our archaeological experience in other parts of the world tells us it
should be. The size of the claim means that it should be quite easy to find
evidence for it if were it true. On the other hand, the Exodus story concerns a single
event which is said to have happened in just a short period of days around 1400
BC: a group of slaves left Egypt after ten dramatic wonders from God. Do you
not think that it would be difficult to discover archaeological evidence for a
brief event like this that happened thousands of years ago? Our experience
searching for ancient events tells us this is so. The size of the claim means that
it should be quite difficult to find evidence for it if it were true. Yet in spite
of this, what is most fascinating is that while we cannot find any evidence to
support the centuries of civilizations said to have existed in the Book of
Mormon (though we have found plenty of evidence to the contrary), we do in fact
find a surprising amount of evidence to support the event of the Exodus said to
have happened in the Bible. Thus, where it should be easy to find, we do not
find, and where it should be difficult to find, we find!

Let us now consider the evidence we find for the Exodus, but
let us keep in mind the nature of the evidence we are looking for. It must be
noted what we are not seeking to prove. We are not seeking to prove that
ancient Egypt existed, or that the physical geography of the Biblical record is
as it says it was. All the infrastructure and physical geography which the
Exodus story requires is in place exactly as it should be. Egypt, with its
cities and terrorities, existed in the ancient world just as the story describes.
The geographical locations in the story are all in place, such as the Red Sea and
the wilderness of Sinai. Nor are we trying to prove that the ancient Egyptians or
Israelites even existed - this too is an established fact of ancient history.
So unlike the Book of Mormon, we are not seeking to prove the infrastructure,
locations or people of the story. The only thing we are looking for is evidence
for an event. Is there any evidence that the Hebrews lived in Egypt and left
Egypt as the Biblical record describes? That is the question.

Therefore, what kind of evidence do we need, then, to
discover the event of the Exodus? The answer: documentation. Literature, art,
pottery, monuments, coins... anything that would indicate that the Hebrews
lived in Egypt and left Egypt in the manner described in the Bible. But let us
be sure to take into account the difficulty we should expect when trying to
find evidence for this kind of an event. We are trying to find documentation
for one event in the tide of ancient history. Just finding documentation is
difficult for any event in the ancient world. Even if something was written
down thousands of years ago, you still have to find it, provided it has been
preserved. On top of that, we are trying to find documentation for an event
that involved slaves: people of no
importance in the ancient world. In the social psyche of the ancients, slaves
were looked down upon as the defeated, not worthy of mention, forsaken by the
gods. The Exodus story is controversial to the ancient system of thought because
it is the slaves who are victorious;
the slaves who are honored and cared for by God. Furthermore, the Exodus event
is an event that the Egyptians would not want to broadcast or remember. This
latter point shouldn’t be underestimated. Unlike today, in the ancient world
such an event becoming public would mean doom for a nation. Other nations would
no longer fear their gods nor their military might. Who would want to ally
themselves politically with them, a nation that God was against and that was
defeated by slaves? And if the Egyptian gods were defeated by the God of
slaves, what more incentive could other nations have to conquer the Egyptians
themselves? Thus, the Exodus event would not only be a matter of great dishonor
for the Egyptians, but it would be a matter of national survival to erase the
memory of the Exodus from off the face of the earth.

However, despite the obvious difficulties to finding
documentary evidence for the exodus of the Hebrew people from
Egypt, we are not without such evidence. Several surprising accounts of the
Exodus occur in the histories of various Greek and Roman writers, who wrote
down the prevalent traditional history of what happened long ago in the land of
Egypt. It is worth quoting some of these writers. The first is Hecataeus of
Abdera, a Greek historian from the 4th century BC, who visited the
city of Thebes in Egypt and wrote a history of Egypt entitled Aegyptiaca. Scholars agree that his
writing reflects the Egyptian understanding of their own history. The famous
passage on the Exodus is as follows:

“When in ancient times a pestilence
arose in Egypt, the common people ascribed their troubles to the workings of a
divine agency; for indeed with many strangers of all sorts dwelling in their
midst and practising different rites of religion and sacrifice, their own
traditional observances in honour of the gods had fallen into disuse. Hence the
natives of the land surmised that unless they removed the foreigners, their
troubles would never be resolved. At once, therefore, the aliens were driven
from the country, and the most outstanding and active among them banded
together and, as some say, were cast ashore in Greece and certain other
regions; their leaders were notable men, chief among them being Danaus and
Cadmus. But the greater number were driven into what is now called Judaea,
which is not far distant from Egypt and was at that time utterly uninhabited.
The colony was headed by a man called Moses, outstanding both for his wisdom
and for his courage. On taking possession of the land he founded, beside other
cities, one that is now the most renowned of all, called Jerusalem. In addition
he established the temple that they hold in chief veneration, instituted their
forms of worship and ritual, drew up their laws and ordered their political
institutions. He also divided them into twelve tribes, since this is regarded
as the most perfect number and corresponds to the number of months that make up
a year. But he had no images whatsoever of the gods made for them, being of the
opinion that God is not in human form; rather the Heaven that surrounds the
earth is alone divine, and rules the universe. The sacrifices that he
established differ from those of other nations, as does their way of living,
for as a result of their own expulsion from Egypt he introduced a kind of misanthropic
and inhospitable way of life.” (Bibliotheca
Historica, 40.3)

This is one of the most remarkable proofs that the
traditional history of the ancient world was, based upon the Egyptians themselves,
that the Hebrews (then living in Judea) actually originated from the
borders of Egypt, and were expulsed from Egypt on account of religious
controversy, in order to divert divine displeasure manifested by pestilence!

In Book V of his Histories,
the famous Roman historian Tacitus, as he is about to describe the destruction
of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 AD, thinks it is worthwhile to give a brief history
of the city and of the Jewish people for the sake of putting the events he is
relating into context. He begins by describing various views on the origin of
the Hebrews, but then concludes by writing:

“Most
writers, however, agree in stating that once a disease, which horribly
disfigured the body, broke out over Egypt; that king [Pharoah] Bocchoris, seeking a remedy, consulted the oracle of Hammon, and was bidden to
cleanse his realm, and to convey into some foreign land this
race detested by the gods. The people, who had been collected
after diligent search, finding themselves left in a desert, sat
for the most part in a stupor of grief, till one of the exiles,
Moyses by name, warned them not to look for any relief from God
or man, forsaken as they were of both, but to trust to themselves,
taking for their heaven-sent leader that man who should first help
them to be quit of their present misery. They agreed, and in utter ignorance
began to advance at random. Nothing, however, distressed them so
much as the scarcity of water, and they had sunk ready to perish in all
directions over the plain, when a herd of wild asses was seen to retire from their pasture to a rock shaded by trees. Moyses followed them,
and, guided by the appearance of a grassy spot, discovered an
abundant spring of water. This furnished relief. After a
continuous journey for six days, on the seventh they possessed
themselves of a country, from which they expelled the
inhabitants, and in which they founded a city and a temple.” (Histories, Book V.3)

While this interpretation on the story is actually quite
comical, it contains many important elements that are relevant to our case.
Tacitus informs us that the view of most writers in his day was that the Hebrew
people did in fact live in, and leave, Egypt. Furthermore, they were expelled
from Egypt in an attempt to appease the gods, due to a horrible disease that
had broken out across the land (boils? Ex. 9:8-1). Tacitus, like Hecataeus,
also goes on to mention Moses, and how the Hebrews afterward settled in Judea
and Jerusalem. While it is certainly an interesting interpretation of the
story, the parallels to the Biblical account are impressive.

Many more ancient historians can be cited who likewise
recorded the traditional history of the Hebrews coming out of Egypt and
settling in the land of Canaan, but the greatest documentary evidence for the
Exodus event that we possess is none other than the Torah itself: a first-hand
account of the event written by Moses and entrusted to the very people who came
out of Egypt. The Torah is one of the world’s most ancient books, and must not
be underestimated for its historical value. According to the testimony of a
people, it has been copied and preserved from the earliest days of their national
history, and this fact has been attested to by its spectacular historical
accuracy of the ancient world. It is used by archaeologists to discover ancient
sites and locations, ancient kings and peoples. The Smithsonian Institution has
stated concerning the Bible:

“Much
of the Bible, in particular the historical books of the old testament, are as
accurate historical documents as any that we have from antiquity and are in
fact more accurate than many of the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, or Greek histories.
These Biblical records can be and are used as are other ancient documents in
archeological work. For the most part, historical events described took place
and the peoples cited really existed. This is not to say that names of all
peoples and places mentioned can be identified today, or that every event as
reported in the historical books happened exactly as stated. There are
conflicts between present archeological evidence and historical reports that
may result from a lack of information on our part or from misunderstandings or
mistakes by the ancient writers.”

On the other
hand, their statement concerning the Book of Mormon is not so friendly:

“The
Smithsonian Institution has never used the Book of Mormon in any way as a
scientific guide. Smithsonian archeologists see no direct connection between
the archeology of the New World and the subject matter of the book.”

As mentioned before, that we should expect to find first-hand
documentation of the Exodus event outside of the Bible is highly unlikely,
since the Egyptians would not have recorded it (becauseit would have spelled disgrace and doom upon
their nation), but it is entirely to be expected that Israel should have recorded
and remembered such a monumental event if it had in fact happened - and so they
did. Thus both the Egyptian silence and the account in the Torah is exactly
what we would expect to find if the Exodus is historical.

One significant and often overlooked evidence in favor of
the historicity of the Exodus event comes from internal evidence in the Torah
itself. It has been observed by many Old Testament scholars that whoever wrote the Book of Exodus was in fact familiar
with Egyptian language and culture from the required period, even on points of
minutia. Intimate knowledge of Egyptian names, places, gods, court life, idioms,
concepts, and theological peculiarities, reveal that the author was a
contemporary of the period and was not writing a history of Egypt from an
ignorant distance. This is in sharp contrast with the author of the Book of
Mormon, Joseph Smith. While Smith’s Book of Mormon claims to be an ancient
document of the Hebrew people living in the Americas, upon examination it
plainly exposed itself to be a product of the 1830’s, written by one who had
little-to-no knowledge of the history, setting, geography or culture of the period
he was writing about. The Book of Mormon is full of anachronism (ex. nearly every theological debate unique to
the 19th century is addressed in the Book of Mormon) and factual
errors (ex. the Book of Mormon claims that horses, elephants and steel weapons
were used by the Hebrews in the Americas. For more information, see Gerald and
Sandra Tanner, Archaeology and the Book
of Mormon). In short, the internal evidence of the Book of Mormon reveals
that it is not an ancient historical document and that it’s author was not
familiar with the period he was writing about, while on the other hand, the
internal evidence of the Torah reveals that it is an ancient document and it’s
author was well acquainted with the period he was writing about. “Whoever wrote
the Torah must have known Egyptian.” (Professor of Egyptology at the Hebrew
University, Randall Price, The Stones Cry
Out, fn. 38, p. 411) Could it be that Moses, who grew up in Egypt, indeed
wrote the Torah, and was in fact an eyewitness of the events recorded?

It is also highly significant that we do not have any
documentary evidence against the Exodus event. No Egyptian writer, nor other
ancient writer, ever wrote a refutation of the audacious claims of the Torah.
If the event were a hoax there would have been such writings, and if there were
such writings, they would have been popular. In that case, we would expect
ancient historians to be conscious of Torah refutations, but no ancient
historian was ever familiar with any such work. On the contrary, what we find
ancient historians writing about is actually what we would expect if the Exodus
event were true: not denial, but reinterpretation, and with plenty of points of
corraboration. However, there are a few Egyptian documents from the event period that
may actually corraborate with the Biblical account (though we cannot be
absolutely certain; see Admonitions of
Ipuwer, and the Biography of
Amenemhab).

If we are looking for documentary evidence for the Exodus
event we have certainly found it in the Torah. The only reason to doubt the historicity of
the Exodus is due to disbelief in the supernatural. This we have already
discussed above. Why couldn’t the Torah be accurate? There is no reason to
believe that the Exodus couldn’t have happened: the geography and
infrastructure is all there, the power of God is well able to do all the things
recorded in the Scriptural record, and we have documentation of the event in the Torah. Ancient tradition attests to the Exodus story, and no writings refuting the story can be found. The nation of Israel has an unbroken witness
to the Exodus in their yearly commemoration of the event by the Passover feast.
This feast has its roots in the earliest period of Israelite history. Every Biblical
author believed in the Exodus and spoke of it frequently to the people throughout
the centuries. Preserving the memory of the Exodus is paramount to the identity
of the Jewish people, not only because it marks the formation of their nation,
but because it also defines their calling as God’s people. Furthermore, for those of us
who are Christian, Jesus Christ the Son of God believed in the Exodus event. Against
all this testimony, if such an event never occured, where did the idea come
from? Why did all these people believe in it as having literally happened? Where
is the evidence to the contrary? Was the Son of God mistaken?

However, our consideration of the evidence is not yet
complete, even though we already have sufficient documentation to form a
reasonable basis for believing that the Exodus event was historical. There is
more evidence yet to be considered.

Archaeologists claim to have discovered
a remarkable proof that the Israelites lived in the land Egypt at the time
required by the Biblical record, and what they have discovered actually
coincides with a very special claim in the Bible: that Joseph the Hebrew lived
in Egypt and became the second-in-command to Pharaoh himself (Gen. 41:40-46). Egyptian
archaeologists claim to have discovered, in Egypt, Egyptian amulets and scarabs, the dating of which accords
with the pre-Exodus period, bearing the face and inscription of Joseph, the
second-in-command to Pharaoh (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133601)! Apparently both his Hebrew and Egyptian name are on these coins. If these are authentic, this is powerful evidence showing the spectacular accuracy of the Bible, and that the Hebrews did in fact live in
Egypt just as the Biblical record suggests. It was because Joseph lived in
Egypt and could provide for grain them that the Hebrews first came to dwell in the
land of Egypt.

The apparent absence of any physical trace for the actual
parting of, and crossing through, the Red Sea, with the subsequent destruction
of Pharaoh’s army, stands for most people as the case against the Exodus as
historical. However, such a conclusion is hasty and does not fully consider the
case. In the first place, finding physical traces of the actual parting and
crossing of the Red Sea is unlikely. It was a nautical event that occurred on one
day which involved no buildings or cities or obvious historical markers to remember it
by. Outside of documentation, the only thing one might hope to find is remnants
of the drowned Egyptian army (chariots, armor, weapons, etc) that perished in
the sea. Yet despite the unlikeliness of finding anything at all, a few highly
interesting discoveries have actually been made. The coastal town Nuweiba,
which sits on the eastern shore of the Sinai Peninsula on the Gulf of Aqaba, is
believed by many to be the historical site of the Israelite crossing of the Red
Sea (see map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuweiba). Here, beneath the surface of the waves and therefore unexposed to
the eye lies an underwater land bridge that extends itself completely from the beach of
Nuweiba unto the opposite shore in Saudi Arabia. The land bridge is
approximately 0.6 miles wide and 9.6 miles long, spanning the entire distance
from one shore to the opposite shore. This land bridge is a strikingly unusual
feature in the area, and without it, even if the waters were parted, the
Israelites could not have been able to cross to the other shore, since there
would be no way to walk across but only untraversable cliffs. This remarkable fact accords
with the description of the Exodus by Isaiah the prophet: “Thus saith the Lord,
which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.” (Isaiah 43:16)
If there was a historical Red Sea crossing, as the Torah and ancient traditions
attest, it probably had to have been here, for this place not only fits the Biblical
description, but seems to be the only geographical location ideal for such an event (although other crossing points have been argued).

Is there any physical trace of the drowned Egyptian army? The
answer to this question is that at this time we cannot answer. Divers have
explored the bottom of the Red Sea and some have said that they have found remains
such as chariot wheels and gold artifacts, but these cannot be confirmed due to
the fact that the Egyptian government does not allow anything to be removed
from out of the sea (see http://www.snopes.com/religion/redsea.asp).
Based upon these reports, we can say that there may indeed be physical evidence
of the Egyptian army, but we cannot say conclusively either way at this time.
We must also consider that this event happened nearly 3500 years ago, and many
factors will create difficultly for finding such evidence. Erosion, burial, coral
growth, the equipment being moved or recovered - all these factors present
significant obstacles to discovery. If such remains do exist, in order to
discover them underwater excavations are required, and that is something that
is costly and has not yet been done. People overestimate the achievements of
archaeology, but the true fact is that archaeology is a young discipline and only a small portion of archaeological
exacavation has actually been done on our globe (though the small portion has yielded rich
results). At the end of 2002, no nautical archaeological program existed in any
Egyptian university (Ruppe and Barstad, International
Handbook of Underwater Archaeology, p. 533), and only as recently as
December 2008 was the first course in nautical archaeology given at Alexandria
University (http://195.246.47.32/cma/news4.htm).
The argument that there is no physical evidence for the drowing of the Egyptian
army is premature.

Lack of evidence for anything is never a proof of falsehood
– to prove something false, one needs to present positive evidence against it.
Regarding the Exodus event, up to this point there is proof for it and no
proof against it. However, the same cannot be said regarding the Book of
Mormon. Unlike the Exodus event, where we are dealing with a one-day event in
history, with the Book of Mormon we are dealing with thousands of years of alleged
cities and civilizations, which not only has no evidence for it, but has
positive evidence against it (for an excellent introduction, see The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1mFdO1wB08).

It also shouldn’t surprise us that there would be little to no
evidence of the Israelites in the Arabian wilderness during their forty years
of wandering subsequent to their passing through the Red Sea. A forty year span isn't a long time to leave a lasting archaeological footprint for us to
discover 3500 years later, especially considering that the Israelites built no
cities nor buildings during this time (the mobile tabernacle doesn't count, which was
a tent, not a building). Neither did they farm nor dig wells, but were miraculously
fed with manna and quail from heaven and water from rock. This is an extremely
significant point. If the Biblical story is in fact true, then what we find
today (or rather don’t find) in the Arabian wilderness is exactly what we would expect; but if the Biblical
story was merely a legendary modification of an actual historical wandering of
the Israelites in the Arabian wilderness – the real story being entirely non-supernatural
– then we would expect to have found traces of the Israelites in the wilderness,
which we do not. Therefore the lack of physical evidence of the Israelites' forty year stay in the wilderness actually supports the Biblical
account.

However, there does in fact exist what could be the most remarkable
evidence of the Israelites' temporary stay in the Arabian wilderness. The Bible
records that after Israel left Egypt and passed through the Red Sea, God
brought the people to mount Sinai in Arabia (Exodus 19:1-2, Galatians 4:25).
There God Himself came down upon the mount and gave the people His law. This
event is the most important event in the Old Testament for the people of
Israel, for it is here at mount Sinai that they entered into a covenant with
God to be His people forever and to obey His commandments. Of extreme
archaeological importance, the Bible records that mount Sinai burst into flames
when God descended upon it, and the mount was literally on fire (Exodus 19:18,
Deuteronomy 4:11, 5:23, Hebrews 12:18). If this event was historical, there
ought to be at least some trace of this phenomenon – and some scholars believe that there is. In the Arabian wilderness (which to this day remains an uninhabited desolate
wilderness perfectly matching the Biblical description of the wilderness that
Israel wandered in; see for yourself on Google Earth), on the eastern side of the Gulf of Aqaba, a fascinating landmark
exists: a mountain that many scholars consider to be the historical location of
the Biblical mount Sinai. Jewish tradition has of old described mount Sinai as
the highest peak in the land of Midian (the western part of modern day Saudi
Arabia); today, this peak is called in Arabic “Jabal al-Lawz”, and not only is
it the highest peak in the area, located in the right place which corresponds to the Biblical
record, but the most surprising things about the mount is that it appears
to be charred black as if by fire. Examiners have observed that the granite rocks are
coated black, as if a volcano had erupted there, but the mount is not volcanic.
What is the meaning of this? Could this in fact be the result of the presence of
God as attested by the ancient story? “The
mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his
presence.” (Nahum 1:5) The Saudi Arabian government has fenced
off the area for archaeological purposes, but do not let foreigners examine it.
Amazingly, the local Bedouins call the mount the “Mountain of Moses” and carry
on an ancient tradition which memorializes it as the historical mount Sinai
where Moses brought the people of Israel. Due to these and many more evidences
that surround Jabal al-Lawz, more and more scholars are believing that it may
truly be the Biblical mount Sinai, as opposed to the traditional and less
attested location in the Sinai Peninsula. “Jabal al-Lawz may be the most convincing option for
identifying the Mt. Sinai of biblical tradition.” (Allen Kerkselager, St.
Joseph’s University) While more investigation is needed,
this is an impressive landmark that may in fact be the historical mount Sinai
of the Bible, thus providing physical evidence for the ancient Torah record
(for more information, see Larry R. Williams, The Mountain of Moses).

But that is not all the physical evidence that can be presented
concerning the Israelites’ forty year stay in the wilderness. There still stands
today in the Arabian wilderness an absolutely stunning rock that by all
appearances is split directly in two, with unmistakable evidence of a once flowing
stream coming out of it’s base. This rock is called “The Split Rock of Horeb”,
and is located in the very same vicinity as Jabal al-Lawz. It was reported by
Jim and Penny Caldwell, an American couple who lived in Saudi Arabia for 12
years employed by the oil and gas industry, who discovered it while hiking in
1992. In the Book of Exodus, the children of Israel were murmuring against God
because there was no water to drink (as indeed there is no water in the Arabian
wilderness today), and God commanded Moses to take his rod and strike a prominent
rock named “the rock in Horeb”. “And the LORD
said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of
Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and
go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou
shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may
drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” (Exodus 17:5-6) According
to the Torah, this rock was a known rock even before he struck it – probably because
of its immense size and impressive feature. Today this rock, besides being
unusually split, is itself immense and stunning. But even more spectacular is
that this one rock is ostensibly split in two down the middle, with evidence of
running water coming out of it’s base. This is quite possibly the rock that
Moses struck to give water to the Israelites (for more information, see www.splitrockresearch.org).

These two physical evidences, Jabal al-Lawz and The Split
Rock at Horeb, lend corroborating evidence to the case that the Exodus story in the Torah
is in fact historical. However, there is yet another line of evidence that
needs to be considered in the case for the historical Exodus, and that is the
archaeological evidence of the emergence of Israel in the land of Canaan. Archaeologists
have discovered that, in accordance with the Biblical record of Joshua, Judges
and the four books of the Kings, the land of Canaan became inhabited by the
Israelites and that Israelite culture dispossessed Canaanite culture beginning about
1400 BC. It is an undisputed fact that the Israelites conquered the ancient
land of Canaan, and what is most interesting and relevant to the case for the historical
Exodus is that this conquest occured chronologically on the heels of Israel’s departure
out of Egypt. So the Torah tells the story that Israel left Egypt c. 1450 BC,
and archaeology confirms that Israel began conquering the Canaanites c. 1400 BC
(for an excellent treatment of the conquest of Canaan and the remarkable archaeological
discoveries regarding the battle of Jericho, see Joel Kramer, Jericho Unearthed). Though the emergence
of Israel in the land of Canaan does not tell us what the Israelites were doing
beforehand, it does show us that the Biblical time frame is accurate. This then
contributes to our trust in the Biblical record of the Exodus.

To deny that the Exodus event could have happened in history
is a stance driven more by unbelief than by a lack of evidence. As we have
seen, contrary to popular argument, there is much evidence supporting the
historical reliability of the Exodus story: documentation, tradition, artifacts,
geography, infrastructure, timeline, physical landmarks, etc. In light of the
fact that we are inquiring into a single event that happened 3500 years ago,
this is an impressive catalogue. It is not therefore a lack of evidence that causes
people to disbelieve in the Exodus story, but it is rather an a priori conviction that such
supernatural phenomenon cannot happen. Such a conviction is entirely
unwarranted and philosophically unsound. Yet many people choose to commit to
naturalism, precluding in their mind any possibility that Biblical stories like
the Exodus might be true, and therefore they argue vigorously against them. But
if one does not commit a priori to
naturalism, and follows the evidence wherever it leads, one can believe in the
Exodus account with a reasonable historical basis. Most importantly of all,
when one believes in the Exodus event as historical, one takes side with the
Jesus Christ, the Son of God from heaven.

In conclusion, it cannot be said that the Bible and the Book
of Mormon are comparable in that they both require you to believe in the
preposterous. Such may be the inevitable Mormon position, with its obvious
lack of evidence and the mounting catalogue of evidence against it, but it
is not the Biblical position. Faith is not believing in something without
evidence, but according to the Bible’s own definition of faith: “faith is the
conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) That is, though one does not
have a perfect knowledge of something (ie. you cannot see it), one is convinced, based upon evidence and reason, that such a thing is true.
Accordingly, we each exercise faith in many things everyday. You do not know
perfectly that your workplace is still there, yet you get up in the morning and
drive to work because you have good reason to believe it is, though you do not
see it before you get there. God calls us to such faith in Him, and He supplies
us with an abundance of reasons to believe; so much so that we are without
excuse if we do not believe. Therefore, let us not be content to be either doubtful or absurd. Let us hear God’s call to faith as it is recorded
by the prophet Isaiah: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.”
(Isaiah 1:18)

1 comment:

"One of the most popular arguments against the historical reliability of the Bible is the argument that there is apparently no historical evidence for the most momentous event in the book: the Exodus."

to

"One of the most popular arguments against the historical reliability of the Bible is the argument that there is apparently no historical evidence for one of the most momentous events in the book: the Exodus."

because the original wording caused some unintended confusion with a friend of mine. Certainly the most momentous event in the Bible is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and I did not mean to suggest otherwise. I was simply trying to emphasize how momentous the Exodus event was, and my wording was poor. I overlooked how my wording could be confused. My apologies.

About Eli

Eli Brayley is a writer, pastor, and evangelist from New Brunswick, Canada. He currently resides in Logan, Utah, where he serves as preaching pastor at All Saints Church. He is passionate about seeing the contemporary Church of Jesus Christ restored to it's Biblical roots and foundation:
"Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His, and Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from lawlessness." (2 Timothy 2:19)
"Though the world is changing and new ideas and technologies emerge, neither the lost condition of man nor the transforming power of the gospel have changed, and the blood of Jesus Christ must still be preached for the salvation of souls in this wicked and corrupt generation."